Learning from Lisa

My study

Learning from Lisa pushed me out of my creative comfort zone because I was new to using sprigs, slip trailing, and riots of colour. I made five ceramic mugs (three pictured here) based on Lisa Orr's mugs in the Rosenfield Collection and Lisa's tall mugs with a frilly base. 

Each of my mugs was pinched or rolled from Clayworks cone 6 white midfire clay. I started with the cup body, then added the base and the handle. I made and attached sprigs from molds of crocheted doilies, trailed slip from a plastic sandwich bag, and managed to keep the natural textured edge of a pressed slab in one of the mugs.

After a bisque firing to 1000-1040c, I brought out the texture of the sprigs and slip trails using a brown underglaze wash (after first trying red copper oxide wash which came out green), carefully wiped the raised areas clean with a damp sponge, then applied yellow, red, and green underglaze paints inside and outside with a brush. I used a large brush deliberately to encourage bold brush strokes.

I found the application of the colour underglaze challenging. Colour scares me. No one will understand what I mean unless they too are someone who is scared of colour. But I found that I love the combination of red, yellow, green, and white. It is a very fruity colour combination, and it does remind me of, as Lisa says, a healthy garden in action.

The height of the tall mugs was new to me, but I love the curvy shape and the frilly skirt which to me, combined with the doily, says 'feminine' and 'voluptuous'.

The duds

Are you learning anything if you don't make some mistakes? In the spirit of embracing failure and failing forwards, here are the duds.

The first dud was of course the first mug I made in this project. It didn't have the right shape and the sprigs weren't well defined but I loved the fruity colours inside the mug. So in subsequent mugs I kept these colours and tried something different for the rest. 

The other dud was one of the last mugs where I thought I should at least try bring in some turquoise. But using underglaze to try emulate a turquoise low-fire glaze, a mini-stained-glass window, is never going to work. On the plus side I was more adventurous and ended up with an interesting flower footer. Overall the dull turquoise and a couple of hairline cracks inside the mug meant that this one was a dud. 

I learnt that...

• red copper oxide comes out green;

• trailing slip from a sandwich bag is a genius idea;

• points of clay slip fire to sharp points of ceramic;

• slip trails can be delicate and can detach from the ceramic form after being bisque-fired;

• bisque sprig-molds are handy to create repeated motifs;

• sprigs dry out quickly;

• surface cracks inside bisque-fired forms can be fixed by painting with white underglaze before covering in clear dipping glaze;

• with art, as with life, layers add visual interest and appeal;

• the combination of swiftly applied red, yellow, green, and white underglaze with a clear gloss glaze on top is luscious and fruity.

I'm sure I learnt more on a subconscious level and therefore cannot put into words on this page. Like all learning. Too nuanced to be fully defined or measured.